Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird)

Clyde built/Falklands anchored: freelance journalist/broadcaster, lawyer, legislative drafter, public policy consultant and tour guide - we multitask here!

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

According to an AI analysis of my tweets, I am "like a Swiss Army knife that's been left out in the Falklands' harsh weather - rusty, a bit dull, but still trying to be useful"
Not entirely unfair, but it's not just the Falklands weather that's harsh!

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

@hilldaniel The first three have tended to go together (opinions have varied about whether SGSSI really is a separate appointment) but I am not sure about BIOT

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

@neilh32 When I first posted I was about to do something more fun that analyse legislation, but I have now had the opportunity to expand the thread

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

It appears that the Financial Secretary and those advising him may have misread section 77 of the Falkland Islands Constitution and section 9 of the Finance and Audit Ordinance
(The alternative possibility is even more worrying)

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

It is good that there are provisions to allow government to carry on and the public service to continue, but I respectfully disagree with the assertion that the Financial Secretary has “direct authority”

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

Section 9 provides that the mechanism involves a warrant issued by the Governor (either on the advice of Executive Council or as a matter of good governance)

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

@Jgs_x It would be more special if you revealed the answer on Saturday night ;-)

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

It’s that week of the year when I emerged from the radio station after the Breakfast Show to see the sunrise … and what a sunrise it was!

Then I went on to the first of two meetings today for my other work

#sunrise #FalklandIslands #Falklands #australwinter #midwinter

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

It’s the 85th anniversary of Saint Valery and I want to pay a little tribute to the men of the Highland Division and the others left behind there
https://t.co/2rZkgHeI9t

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

I always look for ways to bring my vocation and my avocation together
Reading out provisions of the Hovercraft Act 1968 on the Falklands Radio Breakfast Show* was one of my better ones
(* today’s quiz question was about the mode of transport launched on this day in 1959)

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

A bizarre correlation I have noticed (no causation is advanced, nor is any political endorsement)

On both occasions (1978 and 2025) when the SNP have lost a Hamilton by election, the Scotland (men’s) football team has lost 3-1 shortly afterwards (to Peru and Iceland)

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

It occurs to me (but doubtless occurred to others sooner) that the story of the Glenmutchkin Railway is being re-enacted once again
I wonder if AI was sufficiently self-aware to recognise the similarity when that particular bit of human creativity was fed into it

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

@yuanyi_z I was in Winnipeg some years ago and happened to be in the store on what I only found out was the anniversary of the Company’s founding when I was handed a piece of birthday cake
I though that was so charming

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

@MagnaAulae Indeed (and that may concentrate minds)
Also, one of the asterisks in the provisions for the four months after Jul 1 is whether warrants for spending are granted on advice or at discretion

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

Today would (should?) have been the day of the Governor’s Speech and the Budget in the #Falklands
Both have been postponed until 14 July
The new financial year starts on 1 July
“Business as usual” has been promised

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

For now, all people (including those running departments and subvention bodies) can do is to wait and see if decisions can be reached in time for a rescheduled Budget on 14 July …

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

I spent some time recently getting my head round the relevant sections of the Finance and Audit Ordinance
Money can still be released for up to four months (subject to asterisks) but a complication is that this might run out during the run up to the election due in November

[Ronnie MB 🇫🇰 (Ronnie MacLennan Baird) @RMBFLK]

@andrewknevett @DrunkSuperman3 @ukads3 Still has a very 80s feel